


comp

by passionsghost



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 15:48:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20623571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/passionsghost/pseuds/passionsghost
Summary: - the second segment (what use is etc.) points tothat riddle in the hobbit whose answer is time- & the third segment todover beach. here the narrator of the song likens themselves to both the beloved and the vast unknowable sea of dover beach





	1. mid-april song

walk me out of mid-april and into the sun  
through the snow-dappled streets where the swallows make love  
silhouettes draped in the sun

over water-bright pavement and under white smoke  
over weeds in the asphalt, alive and remote  
as they thaw wrapped in the smoke

and my heart beats on the fire escape  
and you're all the warmth i know  
and I can't seem to keep my sights  
on the snow-covered city below  
on the snow-covered city below.

won't you call me up tenderly as the day dawns  
on the rooftops of houses, and carries us on  
through the world, on through the dawn

the sound of the city pours over the park  
and through gaps in the traffic i hear your guitar  
and it sings over the park

and my heart beats in the darkness  
with confidence silent and new  
and I wake from my sleep 'cause you're singing  
and i know that I'm falling for you...  
i know that I'm falling for you

and i want to get lost with you  
hold your hand in the dark  
follow your steps in the backwoods  
i dream of a sky full of stars  
i dream of a sky full of stars

my heart beats with yearning so fervid and sweet  
come, wake me up, sweep me clean off my feet  
with your smile so sweet


	2. spirit of the lake

how do I start to explain  
everything happens at once  
your hands on my wrists  
and the strength of your kiss  
and once everything's over and done

we stand by the beach  
with our toes in the sand  
in the salty sea air  
with you holding my hand

solemnly touching me, take me so slow  
while the rest of the world fades away  
possessed by the essence of this place  
i'll be the spirit of the lake  
all things have their place, i know

the fossils we find on the stones on the island  
you'll bury the photos you've kept  
at the end of the day, can you say  
what we've left

how do i start to believe  
all of the harm that we've done  
we sit in the shade  
and we hide from the rays  
of the ignorant light of the sun

i don't know who you are  
i don't know who i am  
we stand on the beach  
with our toes in the sand

solemnly touching me, take me so slow  
while the rest of the world fades away  
possessed by the essence of this place  
i'll be the spirit of the lake  
all things have their place, i know  
i know


	3. Chapter 3

i see your arms spread out before a distant patch of sky  
i don't know who i am, or where i am, or why  
you're a lighthouse, brightly shining far above the depths  
i look to your reflection, count your rise and fall of breath  
come in close and whisper low and show me with your hands  
if i must do the deed, at least please tell me who I am!

and when the sun comes up once more [when unstressed]  
i'll be no better than before  
only more ineffably alone

and when we wake and rise again  
i'll know no more than i did then  
all my life forever writ in stone

what use is a limp body? what use are blurry eyes?  
i marvel how we live our lives between sun -set and -rise  
roads erode and clifftops crumble, cities rise and fall  
in the time between our union and the breath of dawn  
fences rust and forests flourish, mountains turn to hills  
rivers in their riverbeds quicken then fall still

and when the sun comes up once more  
i'll be no better than before  
only more ineffably alone

and when we wake and rise again  
i'll know no more than i did then  
all my life forever writ in stone

so who are you to face me, what brings you to my shore  
amidst the cliffs and rocky waves that vanish in the morn?  
wind upon your body, rapture in your heart  
moonlight on the shoreline that shivers in the dark  
come in close and whisper low with adulation mad  
grasping blind at nothing but my footprints in the sand

and when the sun comes up once more  
i'll be no better than before  
only more ineffably alone

and when we wake and rise again  
i'll know no more than i did then  
all my life forever writ in stone

oh,  
fuck me in the wee hours, fingers dark with shame  
shrouded by the darkness, choking softly on my name  
morning leaves me lonely, cold and tempest-tossed  
lo, here's the moment everything is lost  
i feel the porch lights flicker to our gentle rise and fall  
all this time together and i don't know you at all [don't stressed]

and when the sun comes up once more  
i'll be no better than before  
only more ineffably alone

and when we wake and rise again  
i'll know no more than i did then  
all my life forever writ in stone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- the second segment (what use is etc.) points to [that riddle in the hobbit whose answer is time](http://www.henneth-annun.net/things_view.cfm?thid=164)  
\- & the third segment to [dover beach](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43588/dover-beach). here the narrator of the song likens themselves to both the beloved and the vast unknowable sea of dover beach


	4. eva

like the little red riding hood out of the woods you came and you kissed me  
black eyes aglitter, you grinned in the winter cold,  
paw prints clear in the snow

why did you stop for me that evening  
why did you go

you haunt me in dreams til they burst at their seams  
and i cry out in fear in their throes  
and here in my bed I'm awash with the dread  
of what hides from the snow

it was cold, the stars were shining  
up above the wood  
gnarled all around us both  
little riding hood

like the siren of millville you call to me still from the ocean insist  
i feel where you kissed me  
each morning you sing me  
a song from the cliffs down below

why did you stop for me that evening  
why did you go

you haunt me in dreams til they burst at their seams  
but the river will find its way home  
and lying awake i regret each mistake  
like a fairytale, long ago

, little mermaid,  
come and sit with me  
what is there to mourn of you  
deep below the sea


	5. song of the last

[here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20266417)


	6. station bright and lonely

oh god of grey thunder  
under the city  
into a pool of white light  
c  
i rise from his grave  
and ride breathless the wave  
of the crowd pushing into the night  
c  
and you're my station, bright and lonely  
last stop of the night

oh station deserted  
odd hours that blur  
into lullaby lines darting past  
c  
far into the deep  
I'm falling asleep  
on a seat that is holding me fast  
c  
and late at night, your phone hums like  
my hand against the glass

in this unfamiliar city  
i wake up by your side  
the city rumbles underneath  
we sleep, the traffic at our feet  
the stations - like stars - in our eyes

into the station  
the platform awaiting  
I linger to watch the train leave  
c  
for the jewels in deep  
he swims off to the sea  
the wind rises up and recedes  
c  
I'm so in love  
I'm so in love!  
meet me in the subway, dear  
and grant me some relief!

walking home, i think about you all the time  
I can feel my heartstrings pull  
like crossing transit lines  
i think about you, oh  
like crossing transit lines


	7. buried fire

I wait in the car and sit falling asleep  
The radio whispers in tongues  
The brightness enfolds and spills over me  
And I dream of what I will become

We try to hold onto the secrets we keep  
But they all boil forth and froth over and seep  
Into the mortar  
And find other minds

And the gates to the worlds that we open won't close  
Try all we might, though we grovel and hope  
Earth keeps on turning, there's no going backwards in time

The nighttime rains down in a fountain of light  
Bright lights on the side of the bus  
We move past each other, you leave me behind  
And all of our past bubbles up

I dream in the dark of the spectre of light  
The night is an ocean of stars  
That are really that far, that are really that bright  
That look smudged through the glass of the car

We try to hold onto the secrets we keep  
But they all boil forth and froth over and seep  
Into the mortar  
And find other minds

And the gates to the worlds that we open won't close  
Try all we might, though we grovel and hope  
Earth keeps on turning, there's no going backwards in time

The sun is the same as it always has been  
Shining below the horizon  
And you will awake and you'll see it again  
And you'll leave all the darkness behind you

The path that the universe follows is set  
Nothing can alter its course  
Lost in my head, the sun never ascends  
And I play back the world in reverse

We try to hold onto the secrets we keep  
But they all boil forth and froth over and seep  
Into the mortar  
And find other minds

And the gates to the worlds that we open won't close  
Try all we might, though we grovel and hope  
Earth keeps on turning, there's no going backwards in time

Try all we might, though we grovel and hope  
Earth keeps on turning, there's no going backwards in time


	8. airplane trails

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sung

dawn knocks the wind out of a sleepless night  
as i pore over a page, dreaming  
unbidden, words flit across my mind  
I feel her ghost still breathing

night of certainty, night long lost, why [long stressed]  
are you gone so soon?  
i see the fingers of the waking sky  
spread across the crescent moon [spread unstressed]

I can still feel the ghost of something long ago  
I can still feel it, and I...

i know these things will be someday gone from memory  
i've seen the shape of what is lost to time  
airplane trails the morning sun erases  
over the city, in the sky

i pour my heart out to my other half  
as the vast city lies sleeping  
no verse of mine will be my epitaph  
but there's no use in grieving

I want to chase you til the end of time  
through the nights cold and sere  
I want to love and take you line by line  
while we're both still here

and the time goes and the streets fill with snow  
as I structure a reply

i know these things will be someday gone from memory  
i've seen the shape of what is lost to time  
wrapt in thought, the world holds still around me  
holding on to what is mine

airplane trails the morning sun erases  
over the city, in the sky


	9. honeycomb

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sung

just the sight of you sleeping  
and the city still not yet awake  
i knew when we moved here  
the battle was lost  
and the cars on the highway  
i watched as i felt my heart break  
she's a far better husband  
than i ever was

light rains down upon the streets  
from fleeting cars and LED-bright  
streetlights standing in the breeze  
alone |  
windows flood like honeycomb  
tall towers pour down liquid gold  
diffuse into the blueness of the road |  
so sweet that I could taste it  
et où est-tu là-haut? [trans: and where are you up there?]  
so bright you'll never fade into  
the city lights are windows to your soul  
and I walk by and glance up  
at the human heart I used to hold  
the lights are dazzling [3 syllables]  
I'll live my life on honeycomb alone

'cause i knew when we moved here  
the damage was done  
but i miss you in moments  
i miss you in days  
she's a far better husband  
to you than i ever was  
i miss you like sea glass  
still drawn to the waves

I miss you like cinders  
still hot to the touch  
when I held you back then  
did it hurt, was it hard?  
I miss you like sunlight  
I miss you so much  
do you think of me still?  
what's it like in your heart?

light rains down upon the streets  
from fleeting cars and LED-bright  
streetlights standing in the breeze  
alone |  
windows flood like honeycomb  
tall towers pour down liquid gold  
diffuse into the blueness of the road |  
so sweet that I could taste it  
et où est-tu là-haut?   
so bright you'll never fade into  
the city lights are windows to your soul  
and I walk by and glance up  
at the human heart I used to hold  
the lights are dazzling   
I'll live my life on honeycomb alone

I'd driven to the water  
in the chrysler we had  
there lies a world i used to know  
asleep beyond the locks  
i saw ferries set sail  
and come in to land  
i watched them for a while  
and i left them and drove off

I'd wished I could change it  
the week we moved in  
what's it like in the suburbs?  
what's it like to the west of the moon?  
flee from the city  
and trust you again  
what's it like in your heart?  
does she love you as much as i do?

and light rains down upon the streets  
from fleeting cars and LED-bright  
streetlights standing in the breeze  
alone |  
windows flood like honeycomb  
tall towers pour down liquid gold  
diffuse into the blueness of the road |  
so sweet that I could taste it  
et où est-tu là-haut?  
so bright you'll never fade into  
the city lights are windows to your soul  
and I walk by and glance up  
at the human heart I used to hold  
the lights are dazzling  
I'll live my life on honeycomb

so sweet that I could taste it  
et où est-tu là-haut?  
so bright you'll never fade into  
the city lights are windows to your soul  
and I walk by and glance up  
at the human heart I used to hold  
the lights are dazzling  
I'll live my life on honeycomb alone


End file.
